Monday, December 28, 2009

I don't know when someone is supposed to tell their resolutions; before New Year's, right before the ball drops, after the ball drops? Anyway, I need something to post, so might as well post them now. You may post yours if you like.

Saturday, December 26, 2009

So I woke up at six yesterday morning so I could wake up everybody and open presents, but everyone was a pooper and wouldn't wake up. I got toy trains, chocolate, and a bigger and better mp3 player (finally) from Santa. My mp3 player can hold videos and photos, so I put in my favorite Bob Dylan and Donovan photos so I can look at them while I listen to "I Love My Shirt" or something. I got three CDs from my mom. I got Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Volume II, the I'm Not There soundtrack (for those who don't know, I'm Not There is a movie about the many sides of Bob Dylan. The two CDs are mostly just random covers of Bob Dylan songs and not really from the movie at all), and The Hollies sing Dylan. The Hollies is another good band from the 60's, and the CD is just them singing Bob Dylan songs. My mom also got me this weird little electric bug thing that scurries away from you if you make a loud noise. It's weird. My dad got me that record player I was talking about earlier. We have a plan to clear off Andelle's old desk and connect it to her computer, then we can move the files to my computer using my new "memory stick" that my dad also gave me. The next best present I got was a brownie pan that has lines going through it so every piece can have an edge. Andelle didn't have her annual meltdown in the morning like she usually does, but she did later when we refused tell her something that's none of her business.

Friday, December 11, 2009

Bob Dylan bootlegs are the best. Dad let me steal some from his computer. It has some of my favorites, like "She Belongs to Me", "Love Minus Zero/ No Limit", "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue", and my new favorite "Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?" Groovy.

Saturday, December 5, 2009

So the big thing I want for Christmas is a record player that can also save music on my computer. The only problem is that there's so many issues. Also it's kind of expensive. The cheapest one so far was $100, but that's because it was literally cheap.

I need to either get a flash drive or plug it directly in to my computer. I don't want to move my computer into my room, because my room is cold and it smells. Also I'd have no life because then I'd just be a creepy kid who never leaves. I don't want it in the living room because two record players in one room is stupid and I don't want Torry to touch it.

I'd need a stero to listen to it, which would mean more money. Or I could get a boom box that I would be able to plug it into, which is still more money, but not as much. Or I could plug it into my computer, but that would bring back to square one.

Do I want a cover or no? Will I be okay with putting the stylus on manually? Oh, if only I could plug my computer into my dad's record player, but since he bought his 25 years ago, that isn't possible. I can only imagine using a record player exactly like my dad's, so it's very hard imagining using something else.

The reviews on Amazon scare me. People saying the platter was warped, the stylus scratched their records, the belt went too fast, it couldn't play music when it was recording, it would only play music if it was recording. All it takes is one bad review and I look elsewhere.

Friday, December 4, 2009

Monday, November 30, 2009

It must be an actual body of water, not a puddle, precipitation, or in a bottle.

You must declare it to win. Thinking about doesn't count.

To declare you must say this exact phrase: "I see the water!" Nothing more and nothing less. Saying "What is 'I see the water?'" is the only exception. You won't get extra points, but you may get kudos.

If you did not see the water, you may grumble.

At the end of the day, the person who saw the water the most gets bragging rights and may gloat and/or write a haiku about it and post it on Facebook.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Today in Geometry, we're starting a new unit. When we get to a new unit, I always have to sigh with relief. Starting a new unit is like starting afresh but still using the most important stuff from last unit. I actually think I did pretty well in the last unit test, so I'm super excited about that. So the way things go in Mr. Spencer's is:

Talk about the homework we just turned in.

Talk a little about what we're going to learn today

Hand out the packets for the chapter we're working on that day

Tell us the vocab words and maybe explain them if we don't quite understand

Tell us what goes in the blanks for the notes. The packet already has the notes in them with blanks we have to fill in.

Then we have the rest of the block to sit around and do the work.

So today we went through the notes pretty quick and it all made sense. He told us we could move and work with each other to do our work. He said he knows some people will finish it all today. So I get to work with optimism, and it was really easy! I worked with my friend who's kind of a slacker and does her work at home, so I kind of made it into a game so, explaining everything out loud what I was doing, and getting so excited about getting the answer. My friend was just kind of annoyed since I'm like never peppy at school, but today in Geometry I was like a firecracker, and soon I was finished with it. I just made it seem like I was genuinely excited to do math, so then I felt genuinely excited. Usually math is my worst enemy but today it was like my best friend. It's all in the mind I guess.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

For a lab in Science, we had to bring in 12 rocks in an egg carton. Me, leaving it to the last minute, was trying to think of ways to get rocks last night with it being cold and dark outside. The solution: my room. I found lots of pretty rocks that I've collected on various trips, and kept them in random places in my room. Picking the prettiest of the prettiest, I put them in an egg carton and got prepared for bed. The next day (today), Ms. Robinett was explaining the stations, like finding volume, weight, size, and streak. She was explaining some, like the acid test, the magnet test, and looking it over with a magnifying glass. She said for the magnet test that if it's magnetic, then it's magnetite, except for that's very rare. Guess who found out she brought magnetite!

When I asked Ms. Robinett again what kind of rock is magnetic, she said magnetite and asked if I had it. I was so excited! One of my friends asked where I found it, and I said my room. Ms. Robinett laughed and said I found it under my bed with my asteroids. One of my friends who has the same science teacher after me said that Ms. Robinett told them about a student having magnetite for the first time in 20 years.

Monday, October 26, 2009

With every new obsession comes new questions asked by my mother. Every time mom hears me listening to Bob Dylan, she just has to ask what the songs are about. Time after time I have to tell her they have no meaning. Sure, they may have intention, but they have no real meaning. Some songs are obvious what the intention is, like Ballad in Plain D is about his relationship with Suze Rotolo, but not all of them do. In the movie Dont Look Back (and yes, the absence of the apostrophe was intentional), there's a scene where Dylan is being interviewed by a man from Time magazine. His words are , and I quote "...I have nothing to say about the things I write. I just write 'em. I don't have to say anything about them, I don't write them for any reason, there's no great message. If you want to tell other people that, go ahead and tell them." But there are some people who think that Dylan is such a genius that everything he says, and does, has a meaning in there somewhere. On December 3rd, 1965, there was a press conference in San Fransisco. The first question was from the creepiest looking guy ever, who asked if there was a meaning to the cover of the album with Subterranean Homesick Blues on it (that would be Bringing It All Back Home, but by the way they are describing it, I think he was talking about Highway 61 Revisited). He thought that the motorcycle on his shirt was "...an image in [his] songwriting...", where Dylan said that we all like motorcycles and the photo was taken one day when he was sitting on the steps. So there mom, if I have to explain to you one more time that I don't know how Edie Sedgwick has had so many songs written about her, I will throw you under a camel!

Friday, October 23, 2009

I be havin' a sore throat (that dasn't hurt that much, jus' uncomfortable), I be coughin', an' now sneezin'. Nay fever of yet. I also found a website that will translate words in t' swashbuckler speak.

Today there was a pep rally which was more fun than I expected. I sat with my friends and watched all the people walk by with their clubs. We cheered for the marching band people because we knew three people. They later joined us in the stands because although the step team, poms, and cheerleaders get to perform, they told the marching band that they could play at the end if there was enough time (which there wasn't). The floats were pretty cool and they all had a theme, which was beaches or something. The Freshman float was very intricate, and it had the motto "We put the fresh in freshman." It was a tiki hut with a hammock outside it. They threw Milky Ways at us, but they were only fun size, so when I asked my friend for some because he caught one, it was like the smallest thing ever. The Sophomore one was just a boat with some floral decorations and it had a sign that said "I'm On A Boat!" with a cut-out of T-Pain. I loved the Junior's float. It was a pirate ship! It was big because there was people coming out of it and walking the plank. The Senior's float was stupid, but they won just because they're seniors. Basically it was a small boat, but then they got out a dummy of a Leonardtown football player and proceeded to beat it up and rip the head off. Watching the clubs walk in between the floats was funny, because there were clubs that I never heard of before. I didn't know that we had a golf team, and I wondered why since golf seems so boring, except for put put golf, so my friends suggested we have a mini-golf team. A few people threw candy that they got from the floats at the people walking by. The looks on their faces were priceless. The cheerleaders cartwheeled in the parade, and one football player got out of line, back flipped with them, and ran back.

There was an obstacle course where they picked one person from each grade. The freshman won, but that's because the only person ahead of her was a football player and thus couldn't kick a soccer ball straight. Hanging with nerdy guys was funny when listening to their commentary on the performances. They said that cheerleaders are not as hot as they used to be. The step team was doing Michael Jackson, and asked why they grabbed their crotches. During poms they said that anybody could kick their legs like that. I exclaimed "I could be on the pom squad!", and one of my friends turned around and said "Please don't." One girl on the pom squad obviously had no clue what the choreography was, so it was kind of obvious to point her out.

Although the actual pep rally wasn't that great, it was fun to hang out with my friends for two hours. When a song came on that one of my friend's love, we started singing it out loud and saying stuff like "This is my jam!" People came from Chick-Fil-A and handed out discounts which I thought was funny since I knew a music fundraiser was coming up at Chick-Fil-A. One of my band friends complained about how people were going to use the discount at the fundraiser. People were slingshotting (or attempting to) stuffed cows. We were sitting in the middle, so there was no way that one could possibly reach us, yet my friend tried getting one anyway. I said to him "You'll never get one," when out of nowhere one flies in to the crowd and he caught it. Near the end I stole his shoe and didn't give it back to him. When he was close to taking it, I gave it to another friend and he wouldn't give it back either. When the friend with the stolen shoe looked away, the other friend hid it under my feet and told him that he passed the shoe down the crowd. The only problem with nerds is they figure stuff out fast. One thing that kept on happening throughout the pep rally was people kept touching me. You know when people poke you on your shoulder and you're left really confused? Well when it happened I made a big fuss about someone touching me, so then everyone started doing it. I never found out who was poking me when, except for the friend who was sitting in front of me. He wasn't trying very hard to be sneaky, so I didn't tell him off. He eventually stopped, but I kept on feeling pokes on my shoulder all afternoon. I don't know if I'd go to the actual homecoming game since my friends would either be in marching band or won't be going.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Don't you just love it when you find a new song that you absolutely adore? Don't you just love it when you find out you have it on a record? Don't you just love it when the record has a bunch of other songs that you already absolutely adore? Don't you just love the word adore?

Friday, October 9, 2009

I got my braces off today, which was not fun. I waited for like five minutes before the lady next to me asked what color I wanted. Instinctively I answered teal even though I knew I would be getting my braces off. After that the lady left. After what felt like forever the actual orthodontist came over and said "Sorry I'm late" and told me I'd be getting my braces off, and then left. The first lady came back after what felt like forever and said "Sorry I'm late" and then told me all the stuff she was going to be doing. She seemed surprised that I wasn't really excited to get them off. First she had to get the brackets off, which she said was a painless process, but it wasn't. After that they had to put this stuff on that either protected my teeth or whatever that tasted like water, smelled like sunscreen, and felt like sand. The lady out floss in between what seemed random teeth for whatever reason she said. Then they had to put this big red thing in my mouth to stretch it so she could put the bond on my teeth for my permanent retainer. It felt like forever, it tasted awful, and my lips were cracked and numb. Meanwhile the whole time my mouth is dry and uncomfortable since they put a thing in my mouth that was running through the whole thing to suck up my saliva. After another eternity went by I heard someone comment that they couldn't believe it was 10:30 already. My appointment was at 9, so think that over a bit. Then they had to use like a laser gun to dry the bond, so the lady put on special glasses and she told me to close my eyes. The warmth was much appreciated since the room was so cold. Then they actually put on the permanent retainer. When they took out the big red thing that was forcing my mouth open and the thing that was sucking up the saliva, I was close to tears. My lips hurt, my mouth was dry and terrible tasting, and I was missing the math quiz in second block. The lady told the orthodontist that she might have messed up the top permanent retainer, so they had to do it all over again. The lady then had to get the dental floss out of my teeth, but one of them was stuck to the bond of the permanent retainer, so she cut it short, thinking that would help it, but it just made it harder to get out. She had to call over another lady which took forever because she had to pull, and scrap, and floss and until finally she got all the little pieces out. Then they had to get the glue from the brackets off of the front of my teeth, so I had to have a cotton ball stuffed under my upper lip and had to put on safety glasses on as they scraped off the glue with like a drill. I was so grateful when they said I could rinse out my mouth and brush. I still couldn't get the glue taste out of my mouth, and the way I looked in the mirror made me want to cry more. The glasses left a mark that made it look like I had a unibrow, I had glue all over my lips which looked like someone punched me in the face, and no matter how hard I brushed behind my teeth, the taste of the bond wouldn't go away. The ladies waited patiently for me while I stared in the mirror and willed myself not to cry. If I'm uncomfortable, like if I'm sick or I'm cold, then I'm miserable. I hated the permanent retainer. Why would I get my braces off just to have more metal in my mouth? My throat burned with unshed tears. The last thing we had to do was make a mold for my retainers, the clear ones I would get later today. When I sat in the chair, I remember the first time I sat in it, when they did the first mold for my teeth. I had my greek fisherman's cap, the one I called my Billy Shears hat when I had to get my first molds, one and a half years ago. I finally cried when I realized that getting braces wasn't worth the whole process of getting them off. During the whole thing the lady kept asking me if I was excited about getting my braces taken off. I kept on giving her the "so-so" hand signal since her hands were always in my mouth. The lady said we could do the molds later, but I said no, do them now. And I wiped off my eyes before the other lady came in to do my molds. Its hard to breathe only through your nose when it's running. When she did the mold for my top teeth I almost felt like gagging since it was oozing so much almost down my throat. When I finally got out of there my dad told me I was in there for 2 hours. When the secretary gave me a school note, I saw she put 9, since that was when my appointment was scheduled for. Before I went to the office at school, I checked the mirror in his car to see if my eyes were red from crying. My dad laughed thinking I was checking my teeth, which I resent. When I handed the note to the school secretary, she asked if I came directly from the orthodontist. I said yes, and I can understand why she said that. The pass she gave back said the time was 11:36.I passed my theatre arts teacher to go to my locker, and he asked what's wrong. In French my hands were shaking. Definitely not worth it.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Today was the first meeting of the debate team. Actually it was more of a debate club since there's no competition unless we want to participate in the mock trials. The first debate was pirates vs. ninjas. I chose pirates. Ninjas had better speakers, but pirates had more points. Win.

Monday, October 5, 2009

Last night I went to bed at 8 again and woke up not as tired as I usually am. I haven't been using a pillow lately and I now wonder at what the significance of one is. I should start going to bed earlier regularly. Today was actually quite nice. In Government my friend was talking about all the nerdy clubs we could join, like chess club, debate team, and this republican youth club (as a joke). In Geometry, I was arguing with the same friend about how PCs are better than Macs. We were using laptops and they weren't helping my case since they were sooooo slow and stupid. I asked if she wanted my Moxie, which is a soda I bought in New England. Since I wouldn't be able to get upstairs in enough time if I stopped at my locker, so I gave her my combination. In French I told our conservative friend about joining the republican club and wearing Obama shirts, and he said they would beat us up. In Health it was super easy because all we had to do was watch a movie about drunk driving. After school my friend that I gave the Moxie to stopped by my locker and gave me a juice box that she got from IKEA, a Swedish drink made from elderflower. As soon as I came home, I decided to start on my homework, which if you know me is surprising. But the real reason is Torry left and I wanted to use the record player. Torry won't move me if I'm doing homework.

Monday, September 21, 2009

Monday wasn't that bad today, but like always, I find something to complain about. I went to bed at 8 last night and I was still tired getting up at six this morning. In Government we took a quiz, and even though I didn't know what federal, confederate, and unitary governments were, I took educational guesses and I think I managed to get a B, maybe even an A. In Geometry we spent like the whole day doing homework, which was fun. In French I gave a guy the story our group of friends started last year. It was my turn last year but I refused to continue it until another friend gave me the missing pages. The guy whom I gave the story to ended it by saying Korea nuked us all and said we could not change it or alter it at all. Then we got into a whole paradox conversation because I told him he wrote it in pen and that I could just erase it. His conclusion was that we'd all implode. During lunch one of my friends stared at my purse because, I have to admit, it's ugly. But I only use it to carry my lunch. I go to my locker right before lunch and right after lunch so I don't have to lug it around. In Health we had to summarize articles about common sleep problems and caffeine. We had the whole period to do it, so we ended up talking most of the time. After that me and a girl in my science class went to our science teacher to ask about when our research paper was due.On Thursday in Earth and Space Science we got to pick our research topics. The two that really stood out to me was stellar evolution and astrobiology. I took Earth Science in 6th grade and that was boring, so I'm really looking forward to the space part of this year's science. Astronomy has always really intrigued me. So guessing stellar evolution was the life cycle of stars, I picked astrobiology because I didn't know what it was. After class I went to the teacher to tell her my mom changed her email address. I also asked her what astrobiology was, and she told me it was life "out there". I secretly congratulated myself for picking that topic because the first day of class she told us that she does that for NASA. She told me it was an interesting subject and she could show me some interesting stuff.When I came home today I took a nap, and had to listen to Torry complain about chips. When dad bought chips, he instantly hid them in the place where I hid the last box of them. So when Torry was grumbling about them, I told him that Dad was the one who hid them. He then told me he was going to search my room, and even called his friend to look for them. Eventually he found them since I hid them behind the couch where I was lounging. I then told Dad I was hiding them in my room and promptly did so. I think it's funny how I can announce to the whole blogosphere that I'm hiding chips in my room and Torry will be the last person to know. I only had science homework to do so I did that right away. Only 4 problems and they were so easy. I figured out a way to get Torry to not turn of the record player and turn on the TV as soon as he gets home. I staked out my ground on the futon with my backpack and put on a Bob Dylan album, and when he came home with Wendy's and asked not very politely to watch TV, I stood my ground and told him I was doing homework. A thing I don't understand is how could he think he deserves to eat the chips my parents buy and yet go out and buy Wendy's.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Me and mom were volunteering at Smallwood state park today and there were people in the kitchen. They made us lunch; onion pie, curry chicken, and saffron cake. One of the people said the saffron cake was nice and yellow. The other said mellow yellow, and proceeded to whistle mellow yellow for the rest of the day.

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Well last night I kept turning off Torry's computer because the fan was making the most annoying noise. Once I did knock on his door to ask him, but he didn't respond so I assumed he wouldn't care...much. So now I wake up this morning and find that my mouse is gone. It's a good thing I know a bunch of keyboard shortcuts. But seriously tho. He shouldn't be acting so childish.

Friday, September 4, 2009

When I came home from school I fell asleep until like 6. I am exhausted but feeling much better. A few things that I've noticed that have helped me during the first 2 weeks:

Having an upperclassman buddy. I didn't feel as lost as I could have been knowing there was somebody who could help me.

Taking bubble baths. Now that Andelle's gone I have a bathroom to myself. While cleaning it out with mom, I found an old Scooby-Doo bubble bath stuff. It said it was mild and long-lasting, but the bubbles were kind of lame so I'm hoping to get soapier stuff to have bubblier baths :D

Chocolate. And lots of it. Nuff Said.

Having something I brought from home. During the day my motto is "I wanna go home" and I often think of things I'd rather be doing, like sleeping, so I taped a small newspaper article that I thought was funny to the inside of my agenda book. I look at it, think of home, and get back to work.

Saturday, August 29, 2009

You never realize how tired you are until you fall asleep at ten with the TV still on. I woke up at 6:30 and realized I had left it on all night. I turned it off, went back to bed for half an hour, then couldn't fall asleep again. Mom and Dad came home today, which I'm grateful for. This week was a riot, but I'd rather have my parents home. Special thanks to Lona for visiting me and chasing away Torry's 'bro'friends. We went and saw the play Pops cameo-ed in, "Dearly Departed." Of course me and my short attention span, the thing I remember the most was he was wearing green suspenders with trains on them. Oh, and the fact that his death brought the family together. On the way home we listened to a CD where blues singers sing Bob Dylan's Blonde On Blonde. Blues isn't exactly my thing, so when we got home I put on the actual album. You might be a Carlson if you do the cancan to Rainy Day Woman with your mother. Mom then showed me things she saw and bought in Philly. I won't say what they are in case they pop up in someone's mail slot soon. I'm so tired I'm going to bed after I'm done typing this (or at least when the record ends)

Monday, August 24, 2009

My first impression of high school was scary. When I got to the bus stop, I saw so many more people, some of them I didn't even know, that I got so frozen from the unfamiliarity of it that I didn't go to the stop sign, I just stayed across the street. The bus was crowded, too crowded. When walking to the cafeteria, where the freshmen were supposed to go, I got a dizzy spell, like I couldn't believe I was doing this, and I had to wave my hand in front of my eyes. In homebase we got our schedules (again, in case you lost yours since orientation), and the papers you need to fill out to get your locker. First block was government. The teacher was kind of crazy in a in-your-face way, but he's a coach, so he has an excuse. We spent about five minutes going "Kapeesh?" "Kapeesh" "Kapeesh?" "Kapeesh". Second block was Geometry. He jokes around a lot. He told us a really lame joke. "What did the tree say to the other tree?" "Gee, I'm a tree (geometry)." He says he gives a lot of homework, but he gives a lot of time to do it in class. There were lots of sophomores there, which was kind of intimidating. Next block was French. Since I was in French II, there was older kids there, too. French was fun. Most of the time we learned about the teacher, who was a hoot. After French was lunch, which I had most of my friends in. What was surprising to me was that lunch was with other grades too! I was shocked! Same with health, which I had after lunch. I'm so used to the structured classes and lunches of middle school, where the different grades have their lunches and electives at certain times. I don't know how tomorrow will go. Tomorrow I have theatre arts, earth and space science, honors English, and chorus. I have to say that today was okay. A lot better than I thought it would be. Now I'm home, and Torry randomly handed me fries and a chicken sandwich from Wendy's. Not my favorite meal, but at least I won't have to cook dinner.

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Well not really, since I have Torry. I just got home from grocery shopping with Pops and GangGang. Torry is currently gone, and something tells me he had a party last night, since there's beer cans in the bathroom trash can, which I will transfer to the recycling bin later. One good thing about having no one around for a week is I can blast my music! MWUHAHAHAHA! I put a record on when I got home, but the sound wasn't working, which scared me. Then I plugged in a random cord, and it worked again :D

Monday, August 17, 2009

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Camp CEO was a blast! Everyone got paired with a CEO, and I got paired with Karen Howze, a DC magistrate judge. She was a lot of fun, and we went synchronized waterfront watching, underwater basket weaving, and making potpourri together. Camp CEO is the strangest, most interesting girl scout camp ever. Monday and Tuesday were a blur, but Wednesday was when things really started to pick up.

Wednesday was when my CEO buddy came, since the CEO's only stayed for one day and came and went throughout the week. When they came, we'd sing:

Hats off to youHats off to youCamp CEO is proud to sayHats off to youWe're glad you cameWe'll shout your nameHats off to you *insert CEO name here*Hats off to you!

Jan, who was from the GSCNC council and seemed to run the show, told me that her folk idol when she was a girl was Pete Seeger, who she asked to sing at Still Singing After All These Years. He sent a reply via postcard saying he couldn't and that he hoped they sing This Land is Your Land. She has the pamphlet from the concert and the letter from Pete Seeger is framed in her office. She said that she wants to bring everyone together by singing like Pete Seeger did.

Anyway, on Wednesday we got to sign up for what we'd want to do, and I chose the waterfront. There's only two things to do at the waterfront; kayaking and waterfront watching. At first I went kayaking, where when we got out far enough we could get out and swim. The seaweed was really creepy. Afterward there was enough time for us to go waterfront watching, where you sit in chairs in the water. The tide was high so we synchronized waterfront watch, where we sat in a circle and stretched our arms and legs in unison like synchronized swimmers. The kayakers were too late to do underwater basket weaving tho. Later that day we had to get in to groups again to prepare for dinner. Wednesday was dinner on the porch, where we have a fancy dinner and everyone has a part. My group was making potpourri which was placed beside every plate. Dinner on the porch was awesome. There was entertainment before dessert and we drank sparkling cider. My CEO left that night and we sang hats off to her.

Thursday was groups again. I went to the waterfront again, and instead of kayaking I did underwater basket weaving. Now let me tell you, the stairs to the waterfront are steep and long, and it is hell getting back up. Thankfully we took a shortcut, so it wasn't as bad. After that people came and taught us modern dance. Why? I don't know. Then we went to the amphitheatre to listen to two CEO's that work at universeties talk about college. The amphitheatre is also the place where we have 'Dreaming Your Future', where after breakfast every morning, the CEO's that are there sit on a panel and tell people about their careers and take questions.

Friday was jam packed. After Dreaming Your Future, we had a 'Scout's Own' for a woman who died and participated in Camp CEO in past years. After lunch we split in to three groups and went to stations. The first station was working with Jan on planning our book. Yep, they're making a book about Camp CEO 09. The next station was making a scrapbook page about us to be put in a big scrapbook. A photographer from the Washington Post was there taking pictures of us, and he probably thought I was crazy. He pointed out my pen tatoos and I said that hopefully I'll get a sunburn so that when I wash off the pen I'll get real tatoos. Third station was cooking with one of the CEO's, Ris Lacoste, who's a chef and will be opening a restaurant in DC in October. She even asked us if we needed a job, but I figured a thirteen-year-old wouldn't be that great in a restaurant. The dinner was made by the other groups. My group made the hummus, salsa, and guacamole. I was dicing onions, tomatoes, and peppers, so I got to hold a realler big knife. Since it was the last night, we had sparkling cider. We had to present our scrapbook pages and say something we learned, then we got our badges and pin, and a CEO (if yours wasn't there) read the letter your CEO left out loud. It was nice to hear all the praise the CEO's left all the girls. Jan announced all the staff one at a time, and a few of them had standing ovations, especially Foodie, who's the camp cook. At Camp Potomac Woods they usually sing a parody of Leaving on a Jet Plane, but they didn't here, so I sang it to myself (the real version) in the tent.

I learned a lot from Camp CEO, like leadership skills, who I want to be, and what I got to do to get me there. Now that I'm home, its time to rest since I only have a week before school starts for me. It's been a fufilling summer I think. Dad got me a webcam so I can talk to Andelle at college, or so I can report to mom during the first week of school since she won't be here.

Saturday, August 8, 2009

I'm going to Camp CEO tomorrow, and I'm über-excited! Andelle went there, and says its really fun. For a whole week I will be learning about being a CEO, eating awesome camp food, and swimming in a river. And I'm going to bring my buddy, Gumby. I decided to no pack Agent D, the Fabulous Snail, and Kylie since I won't be able to pack a plethora of plushies. Besides, gumby's my new buddy. I will miss all of you greatly, especially Andelle (she's beautiful soul)Smiles! :D

Sunday, July 19, 2009

My mom has been having these pains lately, and after having a nice picnic at Pops and GangGangs, people have been diagnosing her. They also suggested that I write her symptoms on my blog so everyone can join in the fun!

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Playing Uno on Facebook with Andelle made me realize how competitive it is. One time this guy made me draw two cards twice in a row, so I managed to reverse it and make him draw four. I find when playing with Andelle, we try and hit each other with the most skip or draw cards. But if someone has uno, we work together to make the person draw cards. One person kept on making me draw cards and skipping me, turn after turn, until I finally reversed it so I could pelt her with action cards. Its the first time I played Uno in a long time, and its really fun, even if you do fail miserably.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Today me and Andelle were helping at Pops and GangGang's today, and I was sweeping around the pool, which gave me an idea of what I shall post about today. I shall now enlighten (or bore in some cases) with the one thing I learned about in GTT: Levers. Now if you already knew this stuff, I suggest leaving before I embarrass myself. There are three classes of levers. The way you tell the difference is by where the fulcrum, input, and output is.

First class. The fulcrum is in between the input and output. Examples are seesaws, scissors, and crowbars.

Second class. The output is in between the fulcrum and the input. Examples are a wheelbarrow, a nutcracker, and a wrench.

Third class. The input is in between the fulcrum and the output. Examples are an arm lifting weights, a stapler, and (the thing that gave me this idea) a broom. I found when the input (my arm) was lower on the broom, there was more force sweeping the leaves. But when my hands were higher up on the broom, the more distance the broom moved.

Now I know there's a whole thing on on resistance and effort, but I've quite forgotten it. It's best I just write all I know down so I won't forget it next year.

Monday, July 13, 2009

When mom saw this comic in our Sunday newspaper, she said it reminded her of me. I resent that. But then again, nothing interesting has been happening which means nothing interesting to post. This morning me and Andelle baked croissants with chocolate in them, and this time the bottoms weren't burnt. Of course, Andelle left to hang out with her friends, so I'm alone once again. Thankfully Torry left also, which means I can blast my music as loud and as long as I want. Hopefully this blogger will have something important to blog about someday, besides her like of dairy products. (Pssst, I've got goldfish! ^_^)

Monday, July 6, 2009

I'm now in Montréal, Québec. It's actually surprising how much French there is everywhere. I thought there might be English labels below, but mostly everything is just French. So far we went to the science center and a museum about archeolgy and history. So far Andelle's been going on and off between annoying and pleasant. Like right now she's complaing a video she needs to see on youtube that just came out and complains that I've been on too long, even though she spent all day yesterday on. Right now I'm getting my fix of Donovan that I missed the week I was in New York. She's sitting right behind me now and it's really creepy why she can't just leave. It was fun at the museum of archeology and history, because of the tour guide. We called him the Tour Guide of Character. What's fun is that we're just winging it through Montréal. Tomorrow's my dad's birthday (and Ringo Starr's), and we've been trying to find a restaurant for him, but he's no help. It's been fun watching cartoons in French, and I wish Ysa could've come, but instead she decided to go to five-week-comic-book-camp.

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Its festival day in Waterford. There's vendors everywhere! I got a new ring that reminds me of my old one that got squished in gym, but instead of a ying yang there's a star. There's also fireworks later. The visitor's center is awesome. There's internets, free books, a place to charge my phone, and an awesome guy named Jim. We put the curtains up in the boat, which is where I'm sitting now. This place is lovely besides the fact that they support the yankees.

Friday, July 3, 2009

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Its been a few days since we have had eletricity, so I have been using my cell phone sparingly. Today we are in Schuylerville and are going to Waterford. A note for mom: bring the best detangler we have to Montreal.

Saturday, June 27, 2009

We picked up Ysa last night and just started our journey north now. We had a delicious breakfast of cereal and oj. Ysa kept on stealing Kylie and Agent D, but she couldnt get the Fabulous Snail because he's way too fabulous to steal. I found out that we're going to be sleeping in parking lots most of the time, so we get to be hobos! :D

Friday, June 26, 2009

Meet Agent D! She's currently reading a book while Pops & GangGang are hitching up the trailer. So intense! Me and Andelle stayed up until one watching Princess Protection Program. I had to wake up at seven this morning, so I'm really tired. Thankfully we're almost ready and about to leave.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Meet Kylie! I'm going to bring her, the Fabulous Snail, and Agent D (a dolphin) with me on the boat trip. Right now Kylie is helping me pack by holding my toothbrush. Rather protective I might add. I have decided to put off packing until today, which was a stupid move. My clothes are in the wash now, so I'm waiting for that to be done with. I'm so excited!

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Meet the Fabulous Snail! This is just a test because I managed to find a way to send pics to my blog from my phone. This will be useful when I go on trips this summer. Hopefully this won't be the last you see of the Fabulous Snail. Don't mind the messy background, thats just my desk.

Friday, June 19, 2009

Monday, June 15, 2009

During summer you seem to lose track of time. All the days seem to run together. You forget easily. It doesn't make sense. You'd think you'd be sharper since school's out, and you have less stress to haze up your mind. Staying up late and sleeping in definitely doesn't help. Thanks to my wonderful mother, she has a plan to reverse that. We have to do an hour of each every day so our internet can stay on the next day:

Monday, June 8, 2009

The official last day of school is June 12, but after promotion, which is June 10, eighth graders don't have to go to school. Today we had promotion rehearsal where we basically walked in and out and in to the gym three times. We also practiced standing up and down and up and down...I've listened to that graduation song so many times! ARRRGH! Anyway, today we had to clean out our lockers, and I found a moldy tangelo. Exciting!

Here is a song I heard on Andelle's Pandora which she was playing on her iPod touch.

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

I told someone that the reason I couldn't go to Hershey Park for the chorus field trip was because I was going to a family reunion. He said he didn't like his family reunions. I said my family reunion was going to be über-fun since we're going to make puppets and put on a puppet show! He was like "Do you hear yourself?" Lol =D

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Dad just gave me some Beatles Strawberry Fields/Penny Lane sessions, which got us into a long conversation about LP's, EP's, and 45's. It's really weird to hear different version of Strawberry Fields, its so eerie. In other news, I've finally quit girl scouts on Friday. Today we opened the pool. Let me tell you, there is nothing like cleaning rubber with your feet :D

Thursday, May 21, 2009

I feel the end of the school year coming. So far all we do in science is labs, which are way cool. We had French class outside today in the courtyard. In social studies the teacher put on a video about the civil war that took a long time, so me and my friends played cards. I can't wait till summer!

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

I have my spring chorus concert tonight. And instead of having to dress in a stupid whit e blouse and black skirt, we get to wear t-shirts, khakis, and sneakers. WOOT!Before my dad wiped out my computer we were able to save my music, which I'm listening to now. :D

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Sorry about the last two posts.My computer got a huge virus, so I had to post from my phone. For some reason technology is not liking me now. I'm learning HTML now with this great book mom bought me, but when I'm trying it out on my internet it won't work. I tried to put Beatle songs on my mp3 player, but it won't work. My keyboard shortcuts that I love won't work. Technology is crap :'(

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Well today in GTT we found out we were starting a new and final project. We have to do do a presentation and a brochure on a field of engineering. Me and my partner were just being crazy, and we asked the teacher if we could do imagineers! (She's used to our hyper-ness, mind you) She said that we could only pick from one of the fields she gave us, and that she already knew what one would be good for us. We were like "What?" She said as "self-professed hippies", she thought we'd do environmental engineering. Later I told my partner that she must actually listen to our strange conversations.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Today I saw those purple boxes in the trees like Lynnis was talking about. Luckily for me one was in my friend's lawn on her tree. We didn't know what it was, but there was a sign stapled on the tree saying it was put there by the Department of Agriculture. We looked on the website they put on there, and it was really interesting. So far I've only found two purple traps, but now we can make in to an activity when we're driving instead of counting red trucks.

Thursday, April 30, 2009

I finished the gears in GTT! And no help to never-there-partner. When I was doing science MSA's during first block on Tuesday, she did three of them. But today she was doing testing and I finished the rest, which was five! All by myself! We still haven't done the questions yet, but they're easy and due on Monday. I'm also done with all MSA's, and I'm going into all high classes next year. We got our course selection sheets, and though I'm still confused about the electives part, I've done all the important stuff done. All I have to do is have my chorus teacher sign the fine arts stuff.

Sunday, April 26, 2009

I went to the Celtic Festival yesterday. I bought two rings to replace the one that broke in gym class. I also searched the Andrews clan tartan. I couldn't find Andrews, but I found Anderson, but they said that it was the same thing. I watched the Pyrates Royale and sang along, signed a petition to save Mattawoman creek, talked to some Vikings, met a guy who I thought was King Henry VIII (but was not, since he was Scottish), watched caber tosses, listened to bag pipes, looked at fancy knifes, and drunk iced teas.

Friday, April 24, 2009

Today I have Girl Scouts. I have to bring 20 pictures of me, which was hard because, who prints pictures any more? So I had to print out a bunch of pictures from facebook. Though I think I have way more than just 20 pictures. I'm sorting through them now. I'm going to make a scrapbook with them.

At school it was career day. I learned about the Department of Justice, Cisco Networking, and some dude on the SWAT team. After that in GTT we had to model different kinds of gears or something, and my partner is this preppy girl who's always off doing the morning announcements, or doing something for SGA or yearbook club or whatever. Today she must have been helping with the career day. So for the period I just sat about trying to figure out the darn gears. What sucks even more is that for every gears there's a bunch of questions. The whole thing: the questions for the gears, and the signatures approving the 10 models we're supposed to be building is due on Thursday. So thanks to the idiot I'm paired with, I have to make 8 models in two days. I shake my fist at the world for my unlucky fortune, my sore throat, and my allergies.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Today in Language Arts, we are reading A Midsummer Night's Dream. It's sad that this is the third book we've read in the class but it's the only good one. The one's we've before were Farewell to Manzanar and The Pearl. In A Midsummer's Night's Dream, I am Peaseblossom, just because that name is so awesome. Though I wish I got a big speaking part so I could pronounce words correctly. My experiance with reading Anne Boleyn books help greatly. I have four lines, and I quote: "Ready." "Hail, mortal!" "Peaseblossom." "Ready." Awesome, I know. There's also another line where me and the three other fairies Cobweb, Mustardseed, and Moth say "Where shall we go?"

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Sorry about how short that last post was. I accidentally hit send on my phone too soon. There were only six girls from our troop came camping, and since we were the older girls we had to help with everything.On Friday there was pizza delivered, I helped make the salad. I spent majority of the dinner time behind in the kitchen, helping the troop leader resupplying the servers with pizza and throwing away empty boxes. There was something strange with the water since it smelled like sewage, but other than that, dinner was food.Afterwards there was a pajama party, but I was just too tired and I didn't want to scare the little kids. My friends in my Girl Scout troop said I was speaking gibberish when I came out of the bathroom after brushing my teeth.Since our leader was the cook she wasn't there to tell us what to do, so most of the time we wandered around. On Saturday we had pancakes, eggs, bacon, and sausage for breakfast. Since there were a whole lot of kids the food was the kind you microwave, except the eggs. Thankfully there was applesauce to quench my picky stomach. My troop had to clean up after breakfast, and I got so wet when I was cleaning dishes with this clumsy girl.We went down to the amphitheatre to watch these two people from the Port Tobacco Players talk about theatre. Afterwards we hung out in our cabins until the older girls told us we were late for lunch. It was cold-cut subs and chips. We went on a walk to Trefoil Lake. Near the biffy we saw an old boat that we took a picture on. We found a trail near the biffy, too and took it, not knowing where we would go. It was a long trail through the woods, and I led the way following the red markers. After that we were so hot we splashed each other with water.Two girls got into a water fight and ran off. Me and another girl hung around our cabin until one of the girls in the water fight came back and chilled with us. We realized we should be doing something by now, and there was stations going on, so we went to the stations they said we had to go to, which was mask making. My mask is total awesomeness, and after that we hung in our cabin again.Later in the evening we did skits in the amphitheatre, and had hot dogs and hamburgers for dinner. I was crazily tired, so I read in my cabin until the girls in my troop said we had to be in the amphitheatre for s'mores or something. I spent a while there, until I was just too tired and walked alone back to the cabin in the dark. In the cabin when everybody else got there, we talked and threw marshmallows at each other. We laughed our selves to sleep. In the morning I was so glad to go home to take a shower and see Andelle (i <3 u), and blog about it =]

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

I found out a way to make a blog post using text messages so I'm testing it out. Lately we've been having breakfast for dinner. Like last night me and mom ate sausage. Tonight we made potato chips, and I cooked bacon. Mom says I made perfect bacon on my first try. ^_^

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

My dad gave me 21 volumes of this radio program about the history of The Beatles and their songs. All. Of. Them. I even have two of them in German. So now I have about all their songs, and it's so frickin' awesome! Except I can't get it on my mp3 player because it's being a buttnut.

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Today in LA we were making covers for our short stories, and I decided to name my story "Summer of Haight." I cut out a peace sign to put on the cover, and my teacher walks over and asks, "Why do you have a peace sign?" I was about to answer when she said "Oh yeah, you're a hippie." "Gee, thanks."

Monday, March 30, 2009

We have to write a historical fiction short story, and the era I chose was the 60's. I don't know what year to write on, though. I asked my dad about the pinnacle of the hippies, and he said 1969, thought I was thinking that might be too late. I was thinking about 1967, since I want to include the San Francisco song by Scott McKenzie, but I'm not sure.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Yesterday was the last time I have to take the MSA's ever! Last week was the math MSA's on Tuesday and Wednesday. My GTT teacher wasn't there to supervise the test, so we had the two art teachers, one of whom seemed like pure evil for some reason. We had to take the test in the Home Ec room, which was pretty cool. When we started the test I saw Mme. Jerow walk in. It turns out she was also supervising the test! During the breaks she would freak me out by telling me about some upcoming quiz. We later found out that my GTT teacher had pneumonia. We asked her if it was contagious. She said that viral pneumonia was, but bacterial pneumonia wasn't. We asked if she had bacterial pneumonia. She said she hoped.

This Tuesday and Wednesday was the reading test. Even with my GTT teacher back, we still had Mme. Jerow, which I thought was creepy and unnescessary. The good part about the MSA's was that the desks would be moved into rows, which I liked. Also the classes were shorter. It was fun because in social studies all the time he had we used watching our teacher google himself.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

I just came home from April's wedding (which was fun by the way), and I feel sooooo tired! I was hoping I could just put on a record and fall asleep on the couch, but no. Dad's record player has been acting stupid lately. The other day it wasn't plugged in, and once we fixed that, it wasn't plugged in to the speakers. Today it's working, but it's not making a sound, even though it's plugged. Too bad that Dad's too lazy to come downstairs and help me fix it! Later he did come down, and it was really strange because everything was plugged in. Normally I'd blame Torry, but he's currently not here, which makes it physically impossible to blame him. Then again, with him not here, there was nothing that was blame-worthy. The record player is working fine now.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

In gym I can't bear to think of leaving my ring in my locker and losing it, so I tie it on to my right shoelace. Today I decided to go different for once and I tied it on to my left shoelace. Sure enough, when I go to change my clothes, my ring is squished and beyond repair. I found that rather strange.

My choir did get into state, which is awesome! But the day after Fesival I got a sore throat and now it's working its way into a cold. Thank goodness I have my awesome vanilla hazelnut tea.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Today my chorus went to Festival, a thing where middle and high school choirs get together at North Point to sing and sight read in front of judges. It's sort of an assessment for the choirs. I've heard rumors that we got into state, but so far the teacher hasn't told us.